They could hear shouts, coming closer.

Enoch seized Madeline around the waist and leapt into a pod. As the door hissed closed behind them, Madeline saw Marc activate the door to his own pod.

Madeline pushed away from Enoch and tried to steady herself. The pod shook slightly as it moved along its launch track. A voice said, “Launch in thirty seconds. Please take your positions.”

“Come here and sit down,” ordered Enoch, who was strapping himself into a launch seat. “These things are dangerous. If you’re not strapped in, launch will kill you.”

In shock, Madeline sat down in the seat next to him, fastening the extensive system of safety restraints. The voice counted down from ten.

“Put your head back,” warned Enoch. “We’re going to be pulling G’s so hard that it’s easy to get—”

Suddenly, the craft shot forward. Madeline felt an enormous hand was pressing her into the seat, so hard that it was crushing her chest, that her lungs couldn’t inflate…

Madeline Marx passed out, and everything went black.